Kathmandu, February 16:

People of Karnali today demanded strict health policies and their effective implementation to provide basic health facilities to people living in the region.

Speakers at a programme here said people from the Karnali zone were excluded and lagged behind because of the feudal and centralised government.

Illiteracy, lack of awareness and food and economic backwardness are the major reasons for the poor condition of health of people living in the Karnali region, they said. “People living in Karnali don’t have very good health as they are living in a region that is always neglected by the state,” member of the interim legislature Devi Lal Thapa said. “The government should come up with strict health policies to improve the health condition of the people there,” he added.

According to him, the placement of doctors, nurses and health assistants in the region should be made on time and they should be given appropriate salary and benefits. “The state must also provide scholarships to local students,” he said.

General secretary of Nepal Medical Association, Dr Kiran Shrestha, said, “The basic health service provided by the state in the Karnali region is very minimal.”

Shrestha added that the state should prioritise providing health training to locals so that common people of the region could get basic health services.

President of Greater Karnali Media Forum Prakash Rokaya said, “We cannot even think of carrying out major surgeries in the region where a common medicine like paracetamol is sometimes hard to find.”

Rokaya said there were four district hospitals, one zonal hospital, 45 area health posts and 100 sub-health posts in five districts of the Karnali zone, but they did not provide any service.

Stating that the region immediately needs doctors, medicines and operation equipment, Rokaya said the state should make placements through a quota system.